Rollerblade Inc

Rollerblade Inc. founder Scott Olson has filed a lawsuit accusing the company's current owner of failing to pay him royalties on foreign sales of in-line skates. Olson's lawsuit names Rollerblade; the company's current owner and Italian ski-equipment maker, Nordica; and Robert Naegele Jr., who bought out Olson in 1985. The suit does not say how much Olson believes he is owed, but Olson's attorney, Craig Greenberg, said he estimates it to be about $3 million.

Rollerblade Inc. founder Scott Olson has filed a lawsuit accusing the company's current owner of failing to pay him royalties on foreign sales of in-line skates. Olson's lawsuit names Rollerblade; the company's current owner and Italian ski-equipment maker, Nordica; and Robert Naegele Jr., who bought out Olson in 1985. The suit does not say how much Olson believes he is owed, but Olson's attorney, Craig Greenberg, said he estimates it to be about $3 million.

Perched stiffly in her black, above-the-ankle boots, Dixie Pearson of Irvine skated gingerly across the beachfront blacktop at the end of 13th Street on Balboa Peninsula. Flanked by another newcomer to in-line skating, Dana Caputo of Aliso Viejo, and instructor Mike Fenne, Pearson rolled nervously through the first lesson of her new sport. "I want to learn how to skate under control, how to stop, and how not to be dangerous" to others, Pearson said.

Whoosh! There they go by the score, swooshing along on those newfangled ice skates on wheels--arms swinging, legs pumping. Lycra glinting in the sun. Shades just so. Whoa! Over there, a cop stops one and points to a sign: "No skaters." A ticket? For skating? No way--but it's true! Wham! The skater with the Walkman just hit a crack in the pavement and crashed. Check it out. The shades are shattered. The Lycra tights? Shredded! And that cockeyed wrist--it looks bad to the bone.

Perched stiffly in her black, above-the-ankle boots, Dixie Pearson of Irvine skated gingerly across the beachfront blacktop at the end of 13th Street on Balboa Peninsula. Flanked by another newcomer to in-line skating, Dana Caputo of Aliso Viejo, and instructor Mike Fenne, Pearson rolled nervously through the first lesson of her new sport. "I want to learn how to skate under control, how to stop, and how not to be dangerous" to others, Pearson said.

You can call it in-line skating. You can call it skating on Rollerblades. You can even call it bladin'. But don't ever call it rollerblading. "Never use the Rollerblade name as a verb," Rollerblade Inc. warns the media in a terse publicity handout. "There is really no such thing as 'rollerblading.' " Rollerblade--along with such entities as Xerox and Levis--is trying to prevent its trademark name from becoming a generic term.

Spring is in the air, and millions of Americans are lacing up their roller-blades. Skaters have been sprouting like the crocuses in Manhattan's Central Park, where hundreds of bladers come on Sunday afternoons to slalom through obstacle courses, dance to boomboxes or otherwise play on the hardtop. That's no small accomplishment for Rollerblade Inc., which gave the sport its name by pioneering the in-line skate in 1984.

Adrenaline junkies looking for the newest trend might want to give "grinding" a try. Rollerblade Inc. has introduced its first shoe, the RB Grind Shoe, to tap into the new craze for jumping and sliding along curbs, handrails and other urban obstacles, known as grinding. Designed like a street shoe, it's what's inside and on the bottom that sets the RB Grind apart. The sole features a twin bar roller system, two metal bars that float and spin independently of each other.

While several rental shops in Venice and other beach areas carry in-line skates, there is only one place that rents them in the Valley--Valley Skate & Surf. A tiny, cramped shop on Parthenia Boulevard in Sepulveda, it usually rents all 50 pairs of its Rollerblade skates on the weekends. "We could rent more," co-owner Phyllis Fleschler said. "Fifty is not enough." The charge for an hourly rental is $2.50; all-day rental costs $6, overnight, $7. Included are wrist guards and elbow and knee pads.

Spring is in the air, and millions of Americans are lacing up their roller-blades. Skaters have been sprouting like the crocuses in Manhattan's Central Park, where hundreds of bladers come on Sunday afternoons to slalom through obstacle courses, dance to boomboxes or otherwise play on the hardtop. That's no small accomplishment for Rollerblade Inc., which gave the sport its name by pioneering the in-line skate in 1984.

Whoosh! There they go by the score, swooshing along on those newfangled ice skates on wheels--arms swinging, legs pumping. Lycra glinting in the sun. Shades just so. Whoa! Over there, a cop stops one and points to a sign: "No skaters." A ticket? For skating? No way--but it's true! Wham! The skater with the Walkman just hit a crack in the pavement and crashed. Check it out. The shades are shattered. The Lycra tights? Shredded! And that cockeyed wrist--it looks bad to the bone.

You can call it in-line skating. You can call it skating on Rollerblades. You can even call it bladin'. But don't ever call it rollerblading. "Never use the Rollerblade name as a verb," Rollerblade Inc. warns the media in a terse publicity handout. "There is really no such thing as 'rollerblading.' " Rollerblade--along with such entities as Xerox and Levis--is trying to prevent its trademark name from becoming a generic term.

This time last year, Variflex Inc. in Moorpark was a company to watch, rushing to fill demand for its inexpensive in-line skates, the kind that parents would buy for kids with fast-growing feet. Since then, the company has hit a few bumps on the sidewalk to success. Its stock price has plummeted, to about $7 a share on the Nasdaq from a high of $16.50 in February. Sales for the fiscal first quarter ended Oct. 31 tumbled from the comparable period last year by 26%, to $23.5 million.

Some thought it would be just a passing fad, but in-line skating has survived its early growth spurt to become a mainstream American form of leisure. And in-line skate and equipment sales have continued to soar when some thought they would start to fall. Companies selling skates and accessories at the recent 1995 Sporting Goods Manufacturers Assn. Super Show here gave optimistic assessments of the sport's future.